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Hoboken city employee charged with running pot production facility in apartment, guns: courts

Joseph Casella.JPG

Joseph Casella, 32, of Hoboken -- a laborer in Hoboken's parking utility -- appeared in Central Judicial Processing in Jersey City with a private lawyer on the charges of running a drug production facility, weapons offenses, and other drug-related offenses on April 9, 2014.
(Jonathan Lin/The Jersey Journal)

A 32-year-old Hoboken city employee has been arrested and charged with possessing three firearms and running a marijuana manufacturing facility in his Church Towers apartment in Hoboken.

Joseph Casella, who appeared in Central Judicial Processing in Jersey City on Wednesday, has been charged with possessing 10 marijuana plants, intending to distribute marijuana, intending to distribute it within 1,000 feet of a school, intending to distribute within 500 feet of public property, possession of drug paraphernalia, as well as weapons offenses.

This morning, Hoboken spokesman Juan Melli identified Casella as a laborer with the city's Parking Utility and said that Casella was suspended without pay on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the head superintendent of Church Towers Urban Renewal -- at Sixth and Clinton streets -- went up to Casella's fifth-floor apartment after receiving a complaint about furniture being left outside the unit, according to a police report.

Concerned that Casella was renovating his unit without the consent of management, the superintendent opened the door to Casella's apartment and found it in "total disarray," the report stated.

The superintendent told police there was a strong, strange odor emanating throughout the apartment. In the bathroom there were what appeared to be 10 marijuana plants inside the bathtub accompanied by a "grow light" and a makeshift ventilation system, the report said.

Police officers were notified and obtained a search warrant for Casella's apartment, after which he was arrested. Officers recovered one lever-action rifle with a scope and two double-barrel shotguns, along with ammunition and gun carry cases, the report stated.

However, the Hoboken Police Department declined to release information regarding how Casella was arrested.